In the December Top Podcast Publishers list from Podtrac, U.S. Unique Monthly Audience increased for 4 of the Top 20 publishers in December over November. Total Global Downloads for the Top 20 were up 9% month-over-month and up 19% year-over-year. Click through for the entire list, plus RAIN’s remix which sorts top publishers by average audience size and downloads per show. Continue Reading
RAIN’s most-read articles of 2021. Some news items have import that goes beyond the moment — so it is that two of our top five were posted in 2020. On another note, hurrah to RAIN’s stellar lineup of guest columnists. Two of them landed in the 2021 top five. Continue Reading
Spotify has acquired Australian podtech company Whooshkaa. The company says it will integrate Whooshkaa’s platform technology into Spotify subsidiary Megaphone. One important piece of that technology is an easy way for radio broadcasters to turn their content into on-demand podcasting. Continue Reading
Jottings of Note
— Slurp (Will Page)
— Education (teenVOGUE)
— Normal Antics (Rooster Teeth)
Jottings of Note
— The Shift Is Underway… (The Verge)
— …and a Successful Shift (True Native Media)
— New Standards (AIR)
by Steve Goldstein IN his latest column, Steve Goldstein provides a metrics-rich glance back over 2021. Thirteen milestones of 2021 lead us into the unknown of 2022. It’s a fascinating glance back, and forward. Continue Reading
In the November Top Podcast Publishers list from Podtrac, U.S. Unique Monthly Downloads were flat mon over month, and year over year. In the RAIN Remix we re-sort the ranker on an average per-show basis within each network. Click to the see info graphics. Continue Reading
In a new blog entry posted yesterday, Pierre Bouvard (Chief Insights Officer, Cumulus Media) presents a truckload of trends related to Spotify, Pandora, AM/FM radio, and podcasting. A rich bundle of charts, interpretations, questions from RAIN, and answers from the author. Click through for it all. Continue Reading
Data analytics company Drive Time Metrics (DTM) has been awarded a new patent for collecting and analyzing connected vehicle media data. The company collects anonymized data from in-car audio playback of all sorts, and delivers actionable metrics to its clients which can range from music streaming services to satellite radio to AM/FM. Continue Reading
Jottings of Note
— The Llama, Still Getting Kicked (Winamp)
— High and Exclusive (Ed Sheeran & Deezer)
— The Power of Sound (Steve Keller)
Vox Media has bought Criminal Productions, whose best-known show is Criminal, which has appeared on several “Best Of” lists. Vox plans to double the unit’s staff, expand Criminal to a weekly show, and develop new ones. All this takes place within Vox’s podcast division, Vox Media Podcast Network. Vox also takes over ad sales. Continue Reading
The 2021 edition of the annual Spoken Word Audio Report, a comprehensive survey study fielded by Edison Research with support from NPR, is out. Key findings include how all kinds of spoken word audio listening (podcasting, audiobooks, AM/FM talk radio) is quickly growing, and largely eating into AM/FM talk radio. Click through for many in-depth details, graphics, and the download link for full results and videos. Continue Reading